If you suffer from sinusitis, you are not alone.

• Chronic sinusitis afflicts approximately 35 million or 15% of Americans each year.
  
• Sinusitis is more prevalent than arthritis or hypertension.
  
• Chronic sinusitis resulted in approximately 13­18 million physician office visits in 1994.
  
• The health impact of chronic sinusitis on bodily pain and social functioning is worse than that of congestive heart failure, angina, or back pain.
  
  

When antibiotic treatment for infected sinuses fail, surgery may be necessary.

In one year (1995), 538,000 sinus surgical procedures were performed in the United States:

• 475,000 of the procedures were ambulatory (same day surgery); 55,000 were inpatient, requiring an overnight hospital stay.
  
• 48% of the procedures were performed on patients age 15­44. Children under age 15 accounted for 8% of the procedures; the balance (44%) were carried out on patients 45 and older.
  
• Patients in the Northeast (31%) and South (30%) required more sinus surgical procedures than those in the Midwest (20%) and West (19%).
  
• Women required more sinus surgical procedures than men (52% versus 48%).